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Effective Content Marketing: Which Social Media Platform Is Right for Your Kind of Content?

Are you sold on the importance of both content marketing and social media, but not sure how they fit together? For your content marketing campaign to be effective, you have to publish the right pieces on the right platforms. Tired of not getting a straight answer about how to do that? This post is for you.

Links, Blogs, PR, Imagery

Facebook

Facebook is the big fish when it comes to social media. It has the most users, the most business pages, and the biggest influence overall. A Facebook page for you business is as important as a listing in your local yellow pages. People who want to find out more about your business will check out your page. To convert those visitors in the research phase of their buying journey, fill your page with links to related content, blog post links, public relations messaging, and imagery of your employees or products.

Twitter

Twitter is second only to Facebook when it comes to amplifying your business’s reach on social media. The content you share on Facebook is also perfect for Twitter, however, the packaging and strategy needs to be different. The 140-character-or-less tweet limit calls for brevity and ingenuity. Use images that include text to get more information across with fewer characters and spend time developing relationships with other users to make your content spread further.

LinkedIn

Even though it’s a very different site for a very different audience, your general content — blog posts, white papers, PR, office culture and product photos — does still belong on LinkedIn. However, the use you’re going to get out of that content is different. Instead of selling products and services in a B2C environment, you’re going to build brand affinity for your future talent hires and B2B vendors. While this is a much different goal, don’t neglect the benefits this type of social media marketing can have for your company.

Strictly Visual Content

Instagram

Social media users are a particularly visual bunch, but imagery is usually only a part of the content. If your content works without words, try Instagram. Here, the picture is the story. You can still include short or long captions and add text to your image if you want. Just remember users on this app are focused on the visuals.

Pinterest

Visual content that’s particularly interesting, useful, shareable, or educational should go on your business’s Pinterest. Product and company histories can go here. So can pins for tutorials and how-to articles. You can also get traction from users pinning your non-Pinterest content. Just make sure you set up your blog images to be “pinnable” for that to work.

Thought Leadership

LinkedIn

If you’re a gifted communicator and have something fresh to say, LinkedIn is the best bet for your thought leadership content. You can articulate your ideas in full without any need for viewers to click away from the site to continue reading. Either post your thoughts as a LinkedIn update, or get your views out to a wider audience with LinkedIn’s Pulse.

Webcasts, Podcasts, Webinars, Livestream Feeds, Etc.

YouTube

YouTube is still the first destination for video content across the web. The ability to watch videos on the site, as well as share and embed content elsewhere is its strongest selling point. It’s easy to create an account, produce and upload video content, and then share widely with your audience.

Vimeo

Vimeo is also a good choice for hosting and sharing your video content. While the freewheeling social conversation of YouTube is missing, in its place you’ll find a way to engage purposefully with your own cultivated audience. Vimeo is the better choice if you want to upload highbrow content and don’t want your videos paired with ads. Read more about the Vimeo/YouTube divide here.

Facebook Video

When Facebook debuted its video product a couple years ago, it quickly bit into YouTube’s dominance with viewership. This is because Facebook videos play automatically in the News Feed as users scroll. Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk made particularly good use of the new feature. Facebook’s livestream video option is also becoming popular.

Periscope

Twitter’s Periscope app is also gaining ground on the livestream feed video front. The easy combo of being able to combine the reach of Twitter with live video has caught on for journalism, activism, and business. The first-person, as-it-happens aspect is a strong draw for users and audiences alike.

Slide Decks, Presentations, TEDTalks

Prezi and SlideShare

You may not think of presentations as something that could form a part of your social media strategy, but it’s increasingly common to find particularly good public presentations turning up in Google search results and getting shared widely by viewers. If you’ve crafted a great public presentation on your latest white paper, put it on Prezi or SlideShare for others to learn from, share, and interact with.

Looking for more expert advice on how to maximize the impact of your content marketing through social media? Call 313-566-4849 or email hello@kaleidico.com to learn how our full-service digital marketing agency can help you reach your content marketing goals.

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About David Quilty

David is the Director of Content Strategy here at Kaleidico. His varied past of being a test driver for automotive television programs, a Hollywood studio lackey, an online media sales director, and the publisher of a widely-read environmental news website gives him a keen understanding of what kinds of content and messaging will be successful for clients.